


Maybe One Day

by rosettared



Series: Tick, Tock [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 14:58:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13906467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosettared/pseuds/rosettared
Summary: While spending the morning running errands around Paris, Marinette spots Adrien in a nearby café, looking like he's waiting for someone. When she realises he's being stood up, she decides to step in. A date is not what she would have expected to follow, but who is she to complain?





	Maybe One Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to Tick, Tock, and the second one-shot I've ever made, in Marinette's POV. Also available on my tumblr (name is the same) at rosettared. Thank you for reading, hope you like it! <3

“Done!”

Marinette could finally slam her pencil down on her work space and she held her sketchbook high up in awe. “Will she like this, Tikki?”

“ _Like_ it? She’ll fall in love with it!” 

“You really think so?” Marinette still held on to the thin thread of doubt. The two had long gotten home that evening from from the Trocadéro, her secret garden of inspiration. She had spent a good few hours trying to come up with a design that was nothing less than phenomenal. Lest to say, the number of pages she had ripped out and the number of ‘please’s she would have to use for her parents to give her a larger allowance to get a new sketchbook was sad.

“Marinette, she could have rented out _any other_ dress from _any other_ bridal shop in all of Paris. She specially commissioned one from _you_ because she wants _your_ designs; I know so!”

She smiled at her crimson companion, patting her left shoulder as an invitation for her to sit. Tikki had never once failed to equip her with encouragement and unwavering support, no matter the circumstances. She would have surrendered to the pressure the task at hand weighed on her shoulders, if it weren’t for her.

Marinette was called back by the teacher once she had dismissed everyone else in the class for lunch break earlier that day. Mme. Bustier let her be the first person in the school to know that she was getting married (finally!) in one month’s time, and she wanted Marinette specifically to have the honour of designing the grand wedding dress. She couldn’t have accepted any quicker!

Laying her sketchbook on her lap, she traced a finger along the pencil outlines, pondering if she was really happy with what she came up with. _Something’s still not right_ , a voice kept playing on repeat in her head, like a broken radio. It was almost perfect; she just needed to find the missing puzzle piece to her design. A few moments of silence between the two passed before…

_Bingo!_

Marinette dashed to her vanity and frantically pulled out the drawers in her haste, Tikki only watching from afar. She knew she kept it in here… somewhere… _Aha!_

“Lip gloss?” Tikki asked, soaring over to her chosen. “What are you going to use lip gloss for?”

“To give the dress some extra shine! I was thinking that the dress should be glimmering under the Sun, and lip gloss just does that on the design. All eyes will be on Mme. Bustier when she walks in-” Marinette was cut off by the sound of a _fa-thud!_ from the vanity. Both heads turned to the fallen object, and Marinette crouched to pick it up.

A black umbrella? Since when has Marinette owned a-

Wait.

This was Adrien’s umbrella.

If memory served her right, it was about eighteen months since Adrien lent her that umbrella. Eighteen months since Adrien cleared the air over the gum she caught him sticking to her seat, only he _didn’t_ stick it to her seat. Eighteen months since Adrien’s simple gesture of kindness totally had her dear heart pleading for help.

Since she had first fallen for him. 

That said, Marinette had already come to that point in her life in which her infatuation for him had gradually dissipated. Reflecting on the time he reassured her of her place with her uncle and when they talked at the park, she realised she was quite comfortable to hold a normal conversation with him once she took him off the pedestal she held him so high on. 

She looked around her pink bedroom walls which had once displayed Adrien’s face; she knew it was straight-up dehumanising him for the person he was, and took down every single magazine clipping and changed her desktop wallpaper. It wasn’t right. Adrien was a guy worth so much more than what Marinette used to give him. She didn’t want to stand with him as a fangirl when she could be his friend instead. 

She saw that his kindness knew no ends. She saw that he would do whatever he could for his friends, having been subjected to this herself more than a few times. She saw that he would always shield the melancholy in his eyes every time he was with his friends. She saw that he restrained. She saw it in his eyes that he was longing for something much more than what he could ever hope to have.

They weren’t fair to Adrien. It broke her heart that she could see these things at all. She wanted to be the one to change that.

Maybe one day, if Marinette hoped hard enough, she will be.

* * *

At nine o’ clock the next morning, Marinette’s parents asked for help to fetch a few things for the bakery. She was going to see Mme. Bustier over her final design and fetch what we needed anyway, so she didn’t mind at all. 

She walked out of the doors with two lists in her hands. Meeting up with her teacher was the top priority. Going through them over and over, she pinpointed the ones which she would have to get first, as well as the ones that needed to be brought back immediately to the bakery. 

She was going to have a long Saturday morning. 

There was a cafe she passed by after every trip home and out, and her eyes caught sight of a familiar mop of blond hair. Through the windows, she could see Adrien on his smartphone, sitting alone at a table for two. _He’s waiting for someone_ , she thought. If he was on a date, then good for him. Yeah, Marinette was a _little_ jealous, but she would support him, nonetheless. She was a friend before anything, after all. 

She tried so hard not to glance through the glass. She couldn’t help it, every now and then. Fifteen minutes later, she saw him again. He was reading a book, still sitting alone. Thirty minutes after that, he was still there by himself. About forty-five minutes after that, her tolerance snapped. She dialled Nino’s number and demanded he tell her who exactly Adrien was waiting for. She tried her absolute best to get all her errands done as fast as she could so her parents would give her the rest of the day off. 

She had the last straw when she still saw him alone near eleven in the morning. She didn’t care if he was on a date with a model with great hair and flawless skin; _nobody_ stands her friends up. Anyone who makes her friends wait for two hours clearly doesn’t deserve their time to start with. 

She wasn’t sure why she started running from her last checkpoint to the cafe, which was several blocks away, but she found herself pushing the cafe door and took her time to calm herself down. She realised a little too late that all heads turned her direction, Adrien’s included, and she still held onto the door handle. The moment she meet eyes with Adrien, she cleared her throat and cleared her head. 

 _Too late to back out now_ , she kicked herself. _Come on, Marinette. For Adrien._

“I’m so sorry, Adrien!” she pulled the chair across from him and looked left and right to see that people were staring. Maybe she could convince them that he was waiting for _her_. At least that way, they would shift their sympathy for him to irritation for her. 

She signalled him to move in closer so he could hear her whisper. Her eyes darted to the blue scarf wrapping his neck, and she perked up. _He’s wearing my scarf_ , she thought giddily.

“Look, I’ve been in and out of the bakery all morning and you’ve been here every time I glance through the window. You’ve been here for far too long. Whoever it is you’ve been waiting for, she’s a nitwit for standing you up. Just play along,” Marinette explained to him, a stern look on her face. She was dead set on making sure Adrien didn’t feel like he wasn’t worth the time of day.

After the waiter took away her menu, she folded her arms on the table and turned to meet him again. “So,” she began. “what brings the ever-busy Adrien Agreste to this humble little eatery?”

* * *

“No.”

“Come on, Adrien!”

“You know I can’t. What if Nathalie finds out?”

“Well, Nathalie’s not here.”

“ _Marinette_.”

“What she won’t know won’t kill her, right?”

He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Adrien, don’t restrain yourself. You gotta live a little! One isn’t going to change anything, you know. You’re getting one.”

He sighed in defeat. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

“Nope!” she turned to the man behind the counter, victory playing on her lips. “The boy wants one scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough.” Her eyes shifted to Adrien, an adorable pout on his lips, and she smirked before adding, “And he’ll have the chocolate fudge sauce on his, please.”

What had been a vast azure peppered with clouds above their heads had now become a depressing palette of grey, but Marinette didn’t care. She took pleasure in even the littlest things the world had to offer. Raspberry ripple in hand, Adrien by her side and a skip in her step, she was grateful. Spending her evening in the Parisian open air with one of her closest friends was one of the greatest turns her average day had ever made. 

She and Adrien were strolling along the Pont de la Tournelle, talking about the dreadful representation of Paris’s famous duo. While everyone else in the theatre was watching intently, with utter confusion, Adrien and Marinette couldn’t help themselves. If she was truly honest, the only thing the producers had right were the names. The two of them were laughing their heads off the entire film and were microscopically close to being kicked out. 

She had lost track of time at one point of the day, but she enjoyed every second with him. The fingers of her free hand absentmindedly went up to the scarf around her neck - it was a little chilly out for her, and Adrien had selflessly wrapped his birthday gift around her. Apart from the inevitable small loose threads here and there, it was in the exact same condition as when she gave it to him.

The amount of love and care she imagined he had for _her_ scarf warmed her heart and soul.

A moment of silence passed the two - not at all awkward, but comfortable. She could hear the breaths Adrien took, wanting to speak, before dejectedly giving up on the words. “This is… nice,” he finally managed to come up with. 

Eh, she would take what she could get. 

“Isn’t it?“ The weather wasn’t exactly _ideal_ , but she couldn’t agree more. A cheeky thought popped in her head when she saw as he looked away shyly and took another small bite of his frozen confection.  _Do I dare?_

Marinette pushed his hand upwards. 

Adrien paused to process what just happened. She, meanwhile, was cackling like a banshee. He had ice-cream on his face from his nose to his bottom lip. It was so precious, she just _had_ to take a picture! She was also too busy wiping tears from her eyes before a shocking chill pierced through her cheek - Adrien had done the same to her, his smile now a smirk that just screamed trouble. 

“Oh no, you _didn’t_.”

“Oh yes, _I did_.”

With what she had left of her treat, she was going to make him pay. He dodged her shots and counterattacked. Alright, they had caught the attention of quite a number of tourists and other civilians. Who wouldn’t think it was odd to see a couple of teenagers chase each other around and waste perfectly good ice-cream?

Their fun stopped at the boom of thunder. _Uh oh_.

Before they knew it, the rain came pouring down upon them. A few small droplets at first, then a heavy shower. The two of them made a run for it as fast as they could and tried not to get wet, to no avail - they were almost soaked. Adrien more than Marinette as he took his coat off to cover her from the rain as they ran. 

They sought refuge behind a building under an awning. Once they let their lungs relax and heartbeats steady, they took a look at the other. There were still traces of ice-cream on Adrien’s hair and face, and Marinette was sure she had some on her pigtails. They both held soggy ice-cream cones in their hands and threw them away in the nearest trash bin. They burst into uncontrollable laughter once again.

Their giggles died down slowly, and neither spoke another word. Given the weather and the situation, she suddenly remembered. “Oh! The umbrella!” Her hands shot up to her face as she shut her eyes and started shaking her head in disappointment in herself.

He raised a brow at her sudden outburst. “What umbrella?”

“Your… your umbrella. The black one. Th-the one you lent me last year. I always forget to give it back to you… Adrien, I’m so sorry. I know I should’ve returned it as soon as I saw you the next day at school, but I don’t know why I didn’t! It’s not like it’s something not worth remembering, but it was yours! I’m sure you wanted it back-”

Her hands were pulled away from her cheeks and Marinette opened her eyes. She hadn’t realised Adrien had taken a few steps closer to her and held her hands in his. She looked into his soft warm eyes that reminded her of days she ran around vast green fields during her childhood summers. His eyes briefly shifted lower, and Marinette gasped. 

“Keep it.” Adrien told her. 

“Are you sure?”

He brought their hands lower and laced his fingers through hers. “I’m absolutely positive.” Then his lips broke into a dazzling toothy grin. “Don’t want anyone _raining_ on your parade anytime soon, right?”

Marinette untangled one of her hands to slap him across the arm. “Hey! What was that for, Pigtails?” Adrien asked, trying his best not to laugh. 

“Way to kill the moment, Agreste.” She was also trying so hard to be annoyed, but her mouth was betraying her. He eventually gave up and laughed anyway. He caught her hand from giving him another slap. 

“Maybe one day, you’ll learn to love it,” he smirked.

“And that day is not today,” she chuckled. 

He followed suit before another moment of silence passed. “I-I had a lot of fun with you today, Marinette. Thank you so much.”

She gave him another shy smile. “You’re welcome! I… I had a lot of f-f-fun with you too!”

“Could we…” he struggled. “Could we do this again?” Marinette couldn’t speak. Her heart was screaming. Adrien wanted to go on another date with her? “Only if you’re okay with it. I don’t want to force you into anything.” When Marinette didn’t reply, he continued with, “I’ll try to keep the puns down?”

Her mouth formed a straight line. “You’d need luck in your favour for _that_ to happen,” she joked. Even as Lady Luck herself, maybe one day she would find them endearing. Annoying as they were, he loved to make them. She knew she shouldn’t take that away from him. 

She didn’t realise he was still waiting. “Sure. I’d love to do this again,” she assured him. Her eyes moved to his ridiculously huge smile, and he caught on to what she wanted. She knew he wanted the same just as much. 

Adrien let go of one hand and gently cupped her cheek. Marinette moved that hand to his chest. She could feel his heartbeat under her palm, and it was beating with anticipation. Slowly but surely, he leaned into her and finally closed whatever space there was between them. The lingering taste of chocolate chip cookie dough on him made her smile grow against his lips. Time was in the back of their minds, and Marinette wished she could stay like this forever. She could stay in his arms. 

She could stay with him.

Maybe one day, she could learn to fall for him all over again.

That day could come a lot sooner than she hoped for.


End file.
